This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2001-48523, filed Aug. 11, 2001, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk cartridge for containing a disk, which is an information recording/reproducing medium, and more particularly, to a disk cartridge with an improved opening/closing structure so as to maintain an opening with a conventional width for a pick-up while reducing the overall size of the disk cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a conventional disk cartridge 10, which contains a disk D to be used in a recording/reproducing apparatus 100, comprising a case having upper and lower portions 11 and 12 which provide an internal space for the disk D, and a shutter 13 which selectively opens and closes an opening 12a formed through the lower portion 12 of the case so as to allow a pick-up 130 of the recording/reproducing apparatus 100 to access the disk D. An opening lever 150 installed at a cover 101 of the recording/reproducing apparatus 100 is used to open and close the shutter 13.
FIGS. 3A and 3B show that as the disk cartridge 10 seated on a tray 140 (FIG. 1) moves into the recording/reproducing apparatus 100 (FIG. 1), one end of the opening lever 150 pivots and opens the shutter 13 while the one end engages with an engagement portion 13a. A spring 151 restores the opening lever 150 to an original position when the cartridge 10 is ejected from the recording/reproducing apparatus 100 (FIG. 1).
In recent times, the size of a disk is being gradually reduced while raising the recording density of the disk. In addition, an apparatus for recording/reproducing data on a disk is also getting smaller. Therefore, there is a need for a smaller disk cartridge for containing a disk. However, as shown in FIG. 2, a width Wb of the opening 12a for the pick-up 130 (FIG. 1) to have access to the disk D, and reserved spaces Wc for opening/closing operations of the shutter 13 are required to be included in determining an overall width Wa of the disk cartridge 10. These parameters, in effect, predetermine the size of the disk cartridge 10. Consequently, when a width of the shutter 13 and the width Wb of the opening 12a are nearly the same, the overall width Wa of the disk cartridge 10 must be at least 3 times the width Wb of the opening 12a. Reducing the width Wb of the opening 12a to reduce the size of the disk cartridge 10 is undesirable because the opening 12a must allow a turntable 110 (FIG. 1) and the pick-up 130 (FIG. 1) to have access to the disk D. That is, if a disk cartridge is not intended to be used only in a special recording/reproducing apparatus employing a very small pick-up, a width allowing the general-sized pick-up 130 (FIG. 1) and the turntable 110 (FIG. 1) to have access to the disk D must be maintained such that the disk cartridge is compatible with general recording/reproducing apparatuses.
Therefore, there is a need for a disk cartridge having a new structure capable of reducing the overall size of the disk cartridge without reducing the size of an opening for a pick-up.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an improved disk cartridge structure capable of effectively reducing the overall size of the disk cartridge while maintaining the size of an opening of the disk cartridge.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
To achieve the above and other objects of the present invention, there is provided a disk cartridge including a case which contains a disk and a shutter which opens/closes at least one opening formed in the case, wherein the shutter is configured to be folded around both surfaces of the case, and to be slidable on the both surfaces.